MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Senator LIDDLE (South Australia—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (18:06): To the victims, survivors and those who love them and who live with the devastating impact of violence, the coalition hear you, the coalition see you, and we stand with you. Violence in all its forms has no place anywhere—not on our streets, in our workplaces, in our homes, in a domestic, family or community setting or physically, sexually or coercively.

The commitment to addressing domestic and family violence is a shared one that, importantly, must transcend politics. Its eradication remains a non-partisan issue, but that does not absolve us of our democratic responsibility in this parliament to bring accountability to the means the government pursues to get there. Since coming into this place, I have continually asked the Albanese government to leverage its authority to ensure perpetrators of violence are not rewarded by being appointed to any board position funded by taxpayers.

It's the right message and it's the right action. The financial cost and the human cost of not doing that is far too high. It is a simple step wholly within every single Labor minister's remit.

They just need the will, the courage and the appetite to do it. A stroke of their pen will get that done. I also raised the issue of consultation, which should not be a reason for delay when action is clearly urgent and lives depend on it.

Since 2022, the rapid review has provided 21 recommendations. The SA royal commission made it 136. The Victorian royal commission made it 227.

There was extensive consultation on the second national plan and more for the standalone Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander plan. Frontline services are screaming out and desperate for more support. When related systems fail, it's time for action, not more talk.

Terribly, Indigenous Australians are overrepresented as victims, survivors and perpetrators. I was delighted to recently see Congress, a major health organisation in central Australia, embed zero tolerance in its constitution. Now, no person who has a domestic violence conviction recorded in the last 10 years or a domestic violence order issued against them in the previous five years can be on its governing board.

It demonstrates to victims-survivors that perpetrators will not be rewarded. Let's make that mandatory. Indigenous female victims of intimate partner violence have doubled since the Albanese government's election in 2022.

It's time for ending the talk and ideology.